[In which yours truly provides you with a smorgasbord of lively quotes from the Known and Unknown, largely political, many quite thoughtful, many of them revealing the moral vacuum that is the Current Occupant by simply repeating things he’s said. You now know if you want to read any further. Happy New Year!]

 “Why are Trump supporters more offended by ‘happy holidays’ than by ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’?” –Jeff Richards

“How about this for an idea: no corporation or company which has even one employee on public assistance should get a tax cut. If you don’t pay your employees a living wage, you don’t get a tax cut.” –Matthew Dowd

“I had a republican source tell me quite plainly: Bob Corker and other republicans don’t care what Americans say. They are ‘cashing out.’ That’s what this GOP tax bill is about. That’s the verbatim phrase this republican used: ‘cashing…out.’ They’ll go home and reap the rewards in their personal finances and pass the lard onto their kids with no estate tax. They truly don’t care.” –Joy Reid, journalist

“We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit. Frankly, it’s the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so we spend more time on the health care entitlements — because that’s really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking.” –-noted sociopath and House Speaker Paul Ryan, laying the rhetorical groundwork to rein in Medicare, the federal health program that primarily ensures the elderly. He said this the day after passing the $1.5 trillion tax bill sold to the American people as a ‘middle-class tax cut,’ with 83% of the money going to the top 1% of the people. The’debt and the deficit’ Ryan is referring to increases a MINIMUM of a trillion dollars as a result of the tax bill.

 “Look, Paul Ryan, I am 80 years old and I’ve worked since I was 14. I did not pay into the system my entire life so you could call it an ‘entitlement’ and pull the rug out from under me when I needed it the most. Keep your damn hands off our social security.” –Tiffany Merz

 “Hey Trump fans, three questions for you: (1) If Trump is innocent, why does he keep interfering in Mueller’s investigation? (2) If no crime was committed, why do Trump’s associates keep getting arrested? And (3) If they were innocent, why did two of them plead guilty to felony charges?”— Most Americans With A Functioning Brain Stem

 “So…corporations are currently sitting on at least $2.3 trillion in cash. But they need this extra $1.5 trillion before they start ‘creating jobs’?” – Most Americans Who Can Figure Out When Someone Is Pissing On Their Leg and Telling Them It’s Raining

 “We borrowed over $1.5 trillion in your children’s names, and transferred over $3.5 trillion up from working people to the top .001%, all to give over $5 trillion to our morbidly rich Republican donors. But we also gave you a hundred bucks, so what are you whining about?” –The GOP

 “You all just got a lot richer.” –Donald Trump to his friends at Mar A Lago, after signing the tax bill he said many times was a ‘middle-class tax cut’ and was definitely not written to reward his rich friends [BLOGGER’S NOTE: right after Trump was elected, he doubled membership fees at Mar A Lago from $100 thousand to $200 thousand]

“You tell people a lie three times they will believe anything. You tell people what they want to hear, play to their fantasies, and then you close the deal.” –Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal

 “Stop calling Mar A Lago ‘the Winter White House.’ That’s a deceptive Trump branding effort. Mar A Lago is a for-profit business owned and promoted by Trump. It is not government owned and is primarily a vacation resort, whose dues Trump doubled when he took office.” –Frida Ghitis

 

GUY IN RED SUIT: “I’m giving your presents to someone else, but I’m sure he’ll give them to you later.”

KID: “Thanks, Congressional Santa.”

 

“A billionaire makes us pay over $91 million for his golf vacations on his own properties in his first year in office, and then tells us we can’t afford science, food, health, or art.” — Really Pissed Off Americans Who Recognize A Con When It’s Happening To Them

 “You’re playing Monopoly. One player is given all the property except Baltic Avenue. He’s also given 95% of the bank. You’re expected to succeed with what’s left. Of course, you lose immediately. Why? It must be because you’re lazy.” –Remarkably Perceptive Meme on the Internet

 “Trump wants us to believe that immigrants are taking our jobs. But every time I walk into a grocery store, I see an army of self-checkout machines that corporate bigwigs bought to replace people.” –Union Thugs

 “Those on Medicaid who will lose health insurance can always get jobs.”–-KellyAnne Conway “Dear Kellyanne Conway, perhaps the elderly in nursing homes can go work at all the fake coal jobs your boss keeps promising.” –Rep Ted Lieu

 “A racist pedophile suing to contest an election he lost fair and square is the most republican thing ever.” – Middle Aged Riot

 “Hey, I’m voting for Trump, we need a businessman in the White House and this country needs to be run like a business for a change.” –any number of Trump voters who didn’t bother to check, and with a few clicks could have found a cornucopia of Trump’s failures, bankruptcies, frauds and scams, such as:

Trump University – fraud ($25 million settlement)

Trump Tampa – failure and fraud

Trump Soho – bankrupt and death of worker

The Trump Network – scam

Trump Golf Aberdeen – job scam

Trump Golf Puerto Rico – bankrupt

Trump Chicago – default $40 million loan

Trump Panama – lawsuit for management corruption

Trump Baha Mexico – fraud and failure

Trump Fort Lauderdale – scam and failure

Trump Plaza – bankrupt

Trump Taj Mahal – bankrupt four times

Trump Marina/Trump Castle – bankrupt

Trump Riverboat Casino – bankrupt

Trump Atlanta – failure

Trump Charlotte – failure

Trump Jupiter – lawsuit

Trump Waikiki Hotel – scam lawsuit

Trump Air & Trump Pak – business failure

Trump Vodka – business failure

Trump Steaks – business failure

Trump Shuttle – loan default failure

Trump IPO – ticker DJT/DJTCQ/TRMP/TER     –    fail

 “There’s a sucker born every minute.” –David Hannum (quote often ascribed to P.T. Barnum, but actually belongs to David Hannum—see what happens when you do some research? You can find shit out)

AND FINALLY, A BONUS QUOTE, LONGER, BUT STILL INTERESTING ENOUGH TO BE INCLUDED

“Let’s imagine a black guy named Barack Obama had a mediocre record at a business college, had dodged the draft, had been sued by the feds twice for refusing housing to minorities, had been involved in thousands of lawsuits over his real estate career, had known NYC mob ties, had a business partner who had served prison time for multiple felonies, had no U.S. banks who would loan him money for any of his projects, had five children by three wives, had been accused of rape by one of them, had all the above business scams, failures and bankruptcies, had 19 women accusing him of sexual harassment and assaults, a 13 year old accusing him of rape, was caught on tape bragging about how he engaged in sexual assault because ‘when you’re famous, they let you do anything–grab ’em by the pussy,’ had no experience holding public office, had insulted a war hero POW and a long-serving Senator, had mocked a handicapped reporter, and had a record of loudly proclaiming his admiration for Russia’s president. And he decided, with that resume, to run for President. What kind of odds would he have been given by Las Vegas that he’d win the nomination of his party, let alone the election?” –Me, after thinking briefly about what it actually takes to become President now.